


plasma and possibility

by graveExcitement (arachnids)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood, F/F, Science Fiction, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arachnids/pseuds/graveExcitement
Summary: When the food synthesizer aboard theElbabreaks down, Kate has ample time to fix it... or so she thinks; but time is running out for her fellow crew member, Indigo.





	plasma and possibility

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadaras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/gifts).



"Yep. Definitely busted," Kate declared. She stood in front of the malfunctioning food synthesizer, examining it closely. Behind her were two of her three fellow crewmates on the _Elba_ \- a small ship, and an equally small crew.

"But - it was just fine yesterday!" exclaimed Kendra, their pilot.

"Hush," said Captain Xue. "How soon do you think you can get it fixed? We have rations enough to last a week or so, so if it will take longer than that, we need to change course."

"Well, the synthesizer's a finicky beast," said Kate, patting the machine. "But I can probably get it running in a few days' time."

"Let me know immediately if that estimation changes," they said.

"Yes, sir."

Xue nodded in acknowledgement and left the mess.

"I thought we double-checked all of our equipment before we left the station," grumbled Kendra.

"'Course we did," said Kate. "I checked the synthesizer myself. Wasn't nothing wrong with it then. But like I said, this model is finicky... doesn't surprise me that it'd fail on us. S'why we keep a supply of rations instead of fully relying on the synthesizer." She hummed in thought and reached back to tie her hair up. "Really, the hardest part's gonna be figuring out just what exactly went wrong. After that, fixing it shouldn't be much of a problem."

"I hope not," Kendra muttered. "I need my coffee like I need air."

She snorted. "Well, if you want coffee any time soon, why don't you find something useful to do 'stead of pestering me?"

Kendra rolled her eyes, but slunk out of the room. Kate sighed in relief. Kendra was a talented enough pilot, but she could use some maturity... and some common sense.

She had just turned back to her work when she heard a delicate throat-clearing. It was their fourth crewmember, Indigo, their gunner and, incongrously enough, medic.

"Excuse me," said Indigo, "but did I hear you correctly when you said it would take several days to repair the synthesizer?"

"Uh, yeah," said Kate, nonplussed. "Shouldn't affect you much, though. Far as I can tell, you never eat anyways."

Indigo stared at Kate for long enough that Kate put down her allen wrench and stared back. "What?"

"You do not know..." She sighed, running a hand through her short, dark hair. "Of course not. That would require you to pull your head out of your machines."

Kate was about to protest this when Indigo opened her mouth wide, showing off an impressive, gleaming set of fangs.

"...Oh," she said meekly.

"Oh, indeed." Indigo snorted. "You really can be oblivious sometimes."

Kate couldn't even object - the damn thing was, Indigo was right. It was pretty embarassing, especially since she had, in fact, _worked with a vampire before._

'Course, Johann had been fairly... _loud_ about what he was. He was an incredibly useful crewmate; vampires tended to be, with their ability to surive exposure to hard vacuum, and in general survive near anything so long as they weren't too close to the sun. Johann, however, had been rather fond of making puns about blood, or stakes, or just about anything vampire-related. Kate had heard " _Fangs_ for the help" only about thirty goddamn times. So maybe she had... overlooked Indigo's comparatively minor oddities. In retrospect, however, some things were making much more sense.

Of course, since the invention of the synthesizer, vampires had been using it to synthesize blood, thus removing any need to prey on humans. But now that theirs was broken...

"Okay, so," said Kate, "food obviously won't be a problem for you, but... what's the blood situation? "

"That's precisely the issue," said Indigo. "I'll be okay tonight, most likely, but tomorrow I'm going to get thirsty."

"That could be a problem."

"Quite." She was silent for a moment. "Well, I see no need to waste any more of your valuable time. Perhaps the medbay will have something I can... use." She strode out of the room.

"Well then." Kate exhaled. "Guess I better get to work."

* * *

The real problem was that SynTech, the company pretty much everyone got their synthesizers from, was incredibly prickly about their intellectual property. Legally, they couldn't prevent their users from opening up their machines and taking a look at them, but they sure as hell did their best to make their products as confusing as possible, from an engineering perspective.

"You already have a damn monopoly," Kate muttered. "Would it hurt to make your products _fixable?_ "

"Ah, but then how could they make money off people bringing their machines in for repair?"

Kate jumped and only narrowly avoided banging her head on the inside of the synthesizer.

"How long have you been there?" she demanded, extricating herself from the machine.

"Not long," said Indigo, clearly amused.

She sighed. "Did you manage to find anything in the medbay?"

Indigo shook her head. "The medical synthesizer is programmed to only synthesize blood when required to treat a patient. I don't qualify, and won't unless I lose enough of my own blood to register as needy."

"That... seems like a bit of an oversight."

She shrugged. "Usually we just use the food synthesizer. Though it's true, having some sort of backup would have been preferable. Most ships with a majority-vampire crew have multiple blood synthesizers, for just this reason."

"Sounds sensible." There was a moment of silence. "Was there something else you needed?"

"You do realize it's nearly two in the morning, right?"

"Really? Shoot." No wonder she hadn't made any progress in the last little while.

Indigo eyed her with concern. "Have you even eaten?"

Kate shrugged. "Kendra handed out some rations earlier, I think."

"And how long ago was 'earlier?'"

She stared into the air above Indigo's head. "Um."

"That's not particularly reassuring. Let's find you something to eat, shall we?"

Resigned to not making any further progress on the synthesizer tonight, Kate watched as Indigo rummaged in the storage compartments for a while before finally producing a serving of rations. The rations had been specially designed to be filling and nutritionally efficient... but they were also extremely bland. People liked to complain that synthesized food wasn't as rich as the real stuff, but make them live on these rations for a month and they'd be praising the synthesizer.

Of course, all Kate had to worry about for the moment was bland food. Indigo, however... "How are you holding up?" Kate asked, accepting the proffered plate.

"I'm beginning to feel it," Indigo admitted. "It's been a long while since I've had to go thirsty for any significant amount of time. It's frustrating, really, because I'd be fine now if I drank more frequently. But I got used to the synthesizer, I'm afraid, and only drank when I felt it necessary. Careless of me, to be frank... Ah, but you don't need to worry overmuch," she added. "It will be unpleasant, of course, but it's nothing I can't handle... though I may have to lock myself in my room, if this goes on too long."

Kate frowned, setting her fork down. "And just what do you mean by 'unpleasant?'"

"...It will be painful," Indigo finally said.

 _If_ Indigo _says it's painful, it's probably excruciating._ Kate frowned harder. "Surely there's something we could do about that?" When Indigo stared blankly, she continued, "You know. Get you some blood the... natural way."

Indigo inhaled sharply. "You are suggesting..."

"You don't mean to tell me you never thought about it? Seems like the logical solution to me."

She laughed. "Logical, indeed... but I don't think Captain Xue would approve."

"Fuck that."

"Kate - while I am extremely touched, I don't think -"

"I mean it. There's no reason you should starve when we can give you what you need. I'll do it myself, if the others won't."

"You are certain?" Indigo said, soft as velvet.

Kate smiled. "You've been our medic for this long, haven't you? I trust you."

She sighed. "So I have. All right. If we're going to do this - and you can say no at any time - we should do it sooner rather than later. Give you more time to recover. Finish your dinner first," she added, when she saw Kate about to get up.

Kate rolled her eyes, but complied.

* * *

"Okay, I'm gonna be honest," Kate said. "When I proposed this, I expected it'd be a bit more..."

"Dark?" Indigo supplied. "Mysterious? Seductive? Me sinking my fangs into your neck, you wilting in my arms as I drink the blood from your veins?"

"...Yeah, those."

Indigo laughed and gently swabbed Kate's arm with a disinfectant wipe. "We can do that another time, if you want." There was a moment of silence, during which Indigo stepped away to dispose of the wipe and Kate felt her face grow hot. Then Indigo turned back to Kate and jerked in surprise. "Oh, for the love of - _now_ you notice my flirting?!"

It took a moment for Kate to process this. "You - what?"

Indigo pressed a gloved palm into her face. "You are... charmingly oblivious as ever, Kate."

If she thought her face was hot earlier, now it was burning. "Why don't we just... do the blood draw?"

"Yes, of course. Though I'd better change my gloves, now that I've touched my face..." She bustled off, leaving Kate to sit there and wait. And wonder. She could feel her heart beating faster as she re-examined past interactions she'd previously dismissed as nothing.

When Indigo returned, she explained, "I won't be taking all that much. Just enough to tide me over until you've fixed the synthesizer."

Kate nodded her assent.

The process itself was fairly quick, and nearly painless; just a slight pinch, and then nothing, though Kate did start to feel slightly lightheaded as the minutes passed. Soon enough, Indigo had declared it enough, and set about cleaning up.

When she was done, Indigo examined the vials of blood she'd taken. She uncapped one, then hesitated. "This feels so... unsanitary," she muttered.

"Drinking... fresh blood, instead of synthesized?" Kate ventured.

"What? No. No, believe me... this is _much_ better. Honestly, I feel guilty I get to have this... delicacy, while the rest of you are stuck with rations. No, I mean drinking blood in the medbay." She frowned. "Still, best to do it here. I don't want to risk anything breaking in transport." That said, she lifted the vial to her mouth and drank. Kate watched, fascinated, as she drank down first one vial, then another. Then Indigo set down the last vial and turned towards Kate, who felt her breath catch. Indigo looked refined, pristine even, but for a single spot of blood at the corner of her mouth. Kate found herself staring into her dark eyes - the eyes of a predator.

Silently, Indigo stalked closer to where Kate sat on one of the medbay beds. She raised a hand to Kate's face, nearly making contact, before hesitating. "Can I kiss you?" she murmured.

In reply Kate reached up and drew Indigo in for a kiss. To her surprise, while most of Indigo was cold, her lips were warm and soft. Indigo kissed back with enthusiasm, and Kate melted into her embrace. She tasted of blood.

Eventually Indigo pulled away, though not far. "I never thanked you properly."

"There's no need."

She chuckled. "Forgive me for being a bit old-fashioned, then. Thank you for your donation, Kate."

"You're welcome... though I wouldn't mind if you kissed me again."

Indigo did so, smiling. After a moment, however, she drew back. "You ought to get to sleep," she said. "I hate to say this to a workaholic like you, but the synthesizer awaits you in the morning."

Kate smiled. "So it does. Somehow, though... I don't think it'll be much of a problem." Already gears were turning in her mind... and she would be able to work secure in the knowledge that Indigo would be all right.


End file.
